Where to Start: Finding your 'Grass

I truly believe there’s a ‘grass for everyone. 

Some swear nothing beats a strict lineup of banjo, mandolin, fiddle, bass and a Martin D-28 guitar slung up real high.

Some sneak in flutes and saxophones and a guy called ‘Futureman’ playing an invented percussion instrument. 

The purists would argue: “That’s Americana! Not bluegrass!” But even they can’t agree on how high that guitar strap should be. 

I love Classic Bluegrass, but this is not going to be a comprehensive article about Bill Monroe’s musical family tree (though that might come later). 

This guide is more of a listening map of how I started loving ‘grass. Even if you’ve never given the genre a go before, you might find something here you love as well. 

If you would like to listen along, we've put together a playlist on YouTube and Apple Music.

Three alleged "problems" with bluegrass (that are actually the pleasures)

1. It’s the same songs and tunes over and over

This is true. But, like a jazz standard, you get the delight of hearing what an individual musician brings to a tune - how will they twist the phrase? Reharmonise the B section? “Church Street Blues” in 5/4? Ooooh. Makes me feel like a wine connoisseur. 

Noam Pikelny (the funniest man in bluegrass) recorded Noam Pikelny plays Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe (an album recreating Kenny Baker’s album of Bill Monroe tunes), just to give you an idea of how deep this phenomenon goes. 

One of bluegrass’s defining features, compared with much old-time music, is that everyone gets a “break” - their moment to shine and show off what they want to do over the form. 

So, one of my favourite ways to discover artists and albums is to search a tune I like and see who has done a version of it. It gives you a strong sense of the artist’s flavour. 

2. It is either indecently fast or devastatingly sad

‘Grassers love pushing what’s possible on their instrument. If you’re someone who gets a thrill out of instrumental athletics, this is the genre for you! 

And it’s not just the guitarist picking their hands into a frenzy, it’s a whole blistering machine of an ensemble picking their hands into a frenzy (a real “Wheel Hoss”, if you will). 

Now, a word of caution - my band literally received a speeding ticket listening to Béla Fleck on a road trip.

But a ‘grass band worth their salt won’t just run you off your feet. They will melt your heart good and slow too, with sighing slides and high lonesome harmonies. The “Tennessee Waltz” walked, or rather waltzed, so that so that Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own” could run. 

For further evidence, try “Waterbound’,” which will mess you up every time. 

3. It seems like the same musicians keep popping up all the time: The Jerry Douglas Effect

I usually don’t understand sports fandom. But I completely understand obsessing over the lineup. Just observe me madly searching the liner notes to find out who played fiddle on which track. “Oh I knew it was Stuart Duncan”, I say smugly to myself. “That silky bow phrasing”. 

Following individual players of instruments is another great way to explore ‘grass albums - pick a player and follow their discography. 

Like rappers jumping in on a verse, or character actors in British murder mysteries, you develop a delight in hearing favourites pop up on albums, whether in a featured cameo or tucked into the ensemble

My first ‘grass

You may have heard of O Brother, Where Art Thou? I still think this is the best starting point for anyone ‘grass-curious. Even though there are no banjos on it. You hear many of the streams feeding into bluegrass from blues to optimistic depression hymns to Dan Tyminski (George Clooney’s singing voice) ripping into “I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow”.

I was ten when this soundtrack came out. It even reached my small town in the Australian bush via a man from church who eagerly pressed it into my parents’ hands, saying it was some of the best music he’d ever heard. A double album too. A banjo soon joined my parents’ bushband. 

That was my door, but there are plenty of others. Here are some favourites. 

’Grass for when…

1. …You want the G.O.A.T.*

Literally: The Goat Rodeo Sessions

Four of the greatest classical and bluegrass players of all time come together to make a record. So if you want to start your ‘grass journey with the best, you can’t go past Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Edgar Meyer on double bass, Chris Thile on mandolin and Yo-Yo Ma on cello. I’ve probably listened to this album a thousand times and the arrangements still surprise and delight me. 

(* Note: this wasn’t the artist’s meaning of “Goat Rodeo”. They were meaning “a hundred chaotic things that have to go right for a situation to land”. The situation being: how on earth do you blend classical and bluegrass music?)

Highlights:

• “Attaboy” feeling like the start of a grand adventure with a pretty 6/8 lilt that never stays predictable 
• The opening fiddle lick of “Quarter Chicken Dark” (my happy place)
• The relentless, intertwined vocals of “Here and Heaven” (in another Bespoke Folk Newsletter Parvyn has a great anecdote about this one)  

2. …You’re a Celtic kid 

Down the Old Plank Road: The Nashville Sessions by The Chieftains

And then: Further Down the Old Plank Road

As a twelve-year-old I thought Eileen Ivers with her blue fiddle in Riverdance and The Corrs were the start and end of music. Celtic was IT. 

And then Mum put on Down the Old Plank Road and that album did not leave the car CD player for three years and got straight infused into my musical bloodstream. 

It draws on the same kind of Celtic-Nashville exchange as the Transatlantic Sessions - pairing Celtic musicians with Nashville cats. So you hear twangy old Appalachian ballads with Irish reels in the middle of it. And of course the meeting makes sense: these traditions have been crossing and recrossing the Atlantic for centuries.

Highlights:

• “Tennessee Stud” - a romp. 
• “Whole Heap of Little Horses” - gorgeous lapsteel, flute and fiddle. 
• “Give the Fiddler a Dram” - a ten-minute-last-track-on-the-album party. Everyone gets a break on this one, including a fun honky-tonk moment 

3. You want to hear the whole bluegrass spectrum in one album

Manzanita by The Tony Rice Unit

This 1979 album feels like a bridge between the genre Bill Monroe established and some of the places it would go next.

We open with a classic bluegrass train song. Tick. There will be another train song later in the album too. Then you hear the second track, Tony’s original masterpiece “Manzanita” and its iconic trembling extended chords opening which has been copied in just about every ‘grass album since and you realise this is going somewhere else entirely. Then come mountain songs like “Little Sadie,” standards such as “Blackberry Blossom” and “Nine Pound Hammer,” and classic, much-transcribed solos.

But my favourite is his cover of Norman Blake’s “Ginseng Sullivan”. It seems quite jolly until you listen to the lyrics and then you get a little destroyed by the pathos of this poor man’s broken-down body and economy in the fast-moving modern world. 

4. You want to convince your Taylor Swift-obsessed niece to give bluegrass a chance

Crooked Tree - Molly Tuttle 

I wish every thirteen-year-old who felt out of place could sing and play “Crooked Tree” on their guitar and feel better about the world. 

Other highlights

• “The River Knows” - a twist on the classic “woman goes down to the river and does not fare well” murder ballad formula. This woman survives.  
• “Over the Line” - just a joyous love song that doubles as a driving-fast-on-the-highway song

5. You want to hear bluegrass in an Australian accent

Smoke by Paul Kelly and Uncle Bill and Foggy Highway by Paul Kelly and the Stormwater Boys

For our American readers, Paul Kelly is the closest thing Australia has to a national songwriter. He is considered highly literary and is always welcome at a pub singalong. Part Springsteen, John Prine, Dylan and Willie Nelson. He wrote many of the anthems tattooed on (sometimes literally) the cultural consciousness, from a Christmas standard about a felon writing a letter home to the protest anthem “From Little Things Big Things Grow”. 

And, two really fantastic bluegrass (scrub grass?) albums!

A little heads-up for our American friends though, Aussie bluegrass has a reputation for moving more slowly than the American stuff (It’s hot here, ok, takes a lot of energy to play fast). But it’s still got all those bluegrass delights in it. 

Highlights:

• “Our Sunshine” - Ned Kelly bushranger ballad but make it bluegrass. 
• “Rally Round the Drum” co-written with Uncle Archie Roach. It’s Archie’s life story as a tent-boxing man (his version is more jazz-inflected and features his incredible and storied voice here)
• “Stories of Me” - also the name of a doco on Paul Kelly. How much is autobiographical? He’ll never tell. 
• “Meet Me in the Middle of the Air” - because I couldn’t just pick out all the minor key bangers and needed to add Just a Beautiful Song. 

6. You love Dolly Parton

You’ve got to love that Dolly has a bluegrass album called (…wait for it…) The Grass is Blue. 

I first came across this album playing for a Dolly Diamond Dolly Parton-themed drag show (truly one of the greatest gigs of my life). 

Highlights:

• The opening track “Travelin’ Prayer” has everything - a beautiful fiddle waltz gives way to Dolly in her badass mode (as opposed to angelic Dolly) ripping into this (Billy Joel-penned) song
• I love her version of “Silver Dagger” where she rewrites the usually bleak lyric into one where our main woman holds her head high and does what’s best for her and her guy.  
• If you ever see me in a bluegrass session, I’m guaranteed to call her version of “Sleep with One Eye Open”. 

7. ‘Grass for driving on wide-open roads

Drive by Béla Fleck

I dig the anecdote from the Breakdown podcast (linked below) of guitarist Tony Rice completing one take of his solo, and then putting his guitar away and clipping the case shut. Béla, a young up-and-comer having to shyly approach Tony and his shut case to ask if they could possibly record a second. Béla puts together the best of the best in bluegrass on this album and pushes them.

Highlights:

• Everyone bringing it on “Whitewater”. If I was an athlete (lol) this would be my pump up music before a race. 
• The time signature changes in “Slipstream” make me feel as though I’m setting out on a quest
• “Down in the Swamp” is a great tune, bringing in some old-time double stop modal sounds on the fiddle and we should all learn it and play it 

Quick-fire recs

You want to hear the song that changed Erin’s life

“Undone in Sorrow” by Crooked Still from their album Still Crooked

On ABC radio I got asked to pick one track - just one! - that changed everything for my band Broken Creek. It was this track with its heartbreaking build. I first heard it when I was fifteen and it stopped me in my tracks: This is the music I want to make.  

You want to listen to an album that feels like musicians hanging out in their lounge room

For the ultimate “friends hanging out in a room” feeling, try Old & In the Way by Old & In the Way (featuring Vassar Clements, David Grisman and Jerry Garcia, among others)

You wonder why there are no flutes in bluegrass? 

Right Now by Twisted Pine 

You love Debussy and are curious how dense bluegrass harmony can get

The Phosphorescent Blues by Punch Brothers 

There is literally a Debussy piece on this album Passepied. But also a pair of songs for a happy Sunday arvo ‘My Oh My’ and ‘Julep’. My favourite Punch Brothers album. 

You can’t decide whether you want to hear acoustic or electric bluegrass guitar

Orchids and Violence by Michael Daves

The first disc is with a classic bluegrass sound, the second disc gets grungy and electric. Same tunes and it’s so fun to hear the differences. 

You want to listen to a ‘grass in the morning but don’t want it too intense yet

Formations by Hawktail 

You really love Bob Dylan

Red on Blonde by Tim O’Brien 

You need to convince a group of teens to play some ‘grass

“Hey Brother” by Dan Tyminski 

Got ‘em. Now they’ve headed off to watch O Brother Where Art Thou. 

GOING DEEPER

Watch a doco:

Throw Down Your Heart documentary with Béla Fleck

If you want to odyssey with the world’s best banjo player as he travels through Africa exploring the banjo’s musical ancestry and its living relatives through Uganda, Tanzania, The Gambia and Mali. 

Listen to a Podcast: The Breakdown 

A really enjoyable 16-episode podcast uncovering iconic bluegrass albums with a bluegrass-obsessed fiddle player and a bluegrass-newbie music journalist. 

A great mix of going to places and talking to people (they even get to interview Dolly Parton!), while bringing in personal stories and lively disagreement between the hosts. It also weaves in the tracks from each album, which I love hearing in a music podcast. 

Follow a VERY comprehensive map: A Guide to Bluegrass History by Subgenre

If you’re keen for an incredibly detailed overview which will have your listening queued up for years, you can dive into this family tree of bluegrass. 

Start picking some bluegrass 

There are great courses on Peghead Nation or ArtistWorks, whether you are completely new to your instrument or already play and want to learn a new style. Then head to a bluegrass session or workshop at a pub or festival near you! 

I’ve left doors out. Of course I have. 

So, in the comments, tell me which album first made bluegrass make sense to you.

Or tell me what sort of listener you are and, like a good bluegrass dealer, I’ll match you to your particular ’grass.

Erin